Swanny’s World of Sport - Monk a winner, Henry a loser

Alan Swann

So another Premier League season has finished. Here are my winners and losers from the 2014-15 season.

Best manager: Gary Monk of Swansea and Jose Mourinho of Chelsea both stuck to their principles. Monk made his team pass the ball, Mourinho made his team boring so it’s the former for me.

Worst manager: Does over-promoted coach John Carver at Newcastle qualify? If so he’s a shoo-in, if not it can only be Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, a man exposed as a dud as soon as Luis Suarez left the country.

Best player: Harry Kane must be some player to score so many goals playing for such a dull Spurs team, but Alexis Sanchez was great to watch and as consistently brilliant on the pitch as Jack Wilshere was bad off it.

Worst player: With the exception of goalkeeper Robert Green and striker Charlie Austin, QPR had nine terrible players, but were any as bad as Dejan Lovren? The lumbering central defender stank Liverpool out so badly they’ve had to hand the dreadful Kolo Toure another contract.

Best pundit: Gary Neville, no real opposition, although Graeme Souness should get more mainstream gigs.

Worst pundit: Thierry Henry despite plenty of opposition from Robbie Savage. Henry’s ludicrous £4 million salary and those awful trailers announcing his arrival on Sky make him a clear winner. Very little to say and says it in the dullest way imaginable.

Best goodbye: Frank Lampard who left with a glut of medals and few regrets.

Worst goodbye: Steven Gerrard who failed to make the FA Cup Final played on his birthday, failed to win that elusive Premier League winners medal, lost 3-1 on his final home appearance, lost 6-1 on his final away appearance and was then filmed ‘dad-dancing’ at his farewell party.

Best signing: Sanchez, Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas are obvious good ones, but the arrival of Esteban Cambiasso at Leicester suggests Nigel Pearson is not as dim as he likes to make out.

Worst signing: Lovren, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert all proved that Brendan Rodgers and his transfer committee are clueless, but signing Mario Balotelli to replace Suarez was probably the gravest mistake of them all. How it turned out was all so depressingly predictable.

Biggest disappointment: Angel Di Maria looked a genius in his first few performances for Manchester United, but ended up being overshadowed by Ashley Young.

Most pleasant surprise: Vincent Kompany confirming what I have been claiming for years, that he is rubbish.

Best referee: Mark Clattenburg.

Worst referee: The rest of them.

You’ll be missed: Sean Dyche and George Boyd gave me a reason to cheer Burnley on. Dwight Gayle should go and find a Championship club and score 20 goals.